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A review by snazzybooks
Closer Than You Think by Karen Rose
4.0
** Original review posted on www.snazzybooks.com **
Closer Than You Think is the first book in a brand new series by well-established crime/thriller writer Karen Rose.
I won't re-hash the synopsis here again! I have read a few Karen Rose novels before and always enjoyed them and the way she creates vivid, interesting characters. Faith and Special Agent Deacon Novak definitely hit it off together and you can tell from the point that they first meet that they are going to get together, despite her pretending to be annoyed with him. Novak is pretty likeable as a character, though I imagine his extreme protectiveness of Faith would really get on my nerves if I were her- but then, she does seem to have a crazed killer after her so I guess it’s justified!
I do feel like Faith is kind of put on a pedestal in this novel and made out to be the perfect, selfless woman who wants to help everyone and who Novak thinks is just amazing. Sometimes I wished she’d just say ‘you know what, I’m terrified and don’t really care about anyone else, just keep me safe!” because then she’d seem a bit more like a real person.
One thing to note for those that are easily confused in novels (which I admit can sometimes be me) is that there are a lot of supporting characters in this novel; I feel like some of them could easily have been cut out and the story would still have been as good, as sometimes I had to pause and work out who a particular character was and where they’d been mentioned before.
The storyline is nicely fast paced, gritty, gripping from the very first few pages when the danger is quickly introduced. Karen Rose doesn’t seem to hang about when she starts a novel, she gets straight into the story and I think with this type of story that’s just what you want! The narrative included plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing whilst still remaining within the realms of possibility. Things got crazy, but not so much that you didn’t believe it could ever happen! At 544 pages on Kindle (and over 700 in paperback apparently!) this is a long book, but it didn’t feel like I was getting bored or distracted as I read it; it kept me hooked throughout and I enjoyed reading almost every part of it...
Now, I’m no prude. Sex scenes in books don’t bother me at all; they’re usually a bit of fun and add to the story. They can be written well and in a way that doesn’t make me cringe or feel like I’ve accidentally picked up a badly written erotic novel. However, Deacon and Faith’s relationship is very romanticised and overemotional, in my opinion. This applies to their dialogue with each other and, well, just the way they are together considering the novel only spans 9 days and they don’t meet until a day into the story!
It gets pretty damn cheesy in the parts where they’re ‘flirting’ and especially during the sex scenes - they really made me cringe to be honest! I do understand that this novel also seems to be a romance but if the romance/ sex parts need to be included then I feel it could have been done in a better way with less dramatics. Here are a few examples:
• “He exploded into action, yanking her panties down her legs, pushing his boxers out of the way, rolling her to her back. He straddled her again, but this time the view was much better... “But not now,” he said gruffly. “I need to be inside you now.”
• “Because, although she hadn’t twitched her ass once, Deacon would have to be a dead man not to notice that it was round and... very nice.”
• “Rounded breasts swelling above black lace. Creamy white skin. Soft, he thought. Her skin would be so soft. And he needed to look away. Now.”
• “Emotion barrelled through him with the force of an avalanche”
And on and on! The sexual tension is present from the moment Faith and Deacon meet but the sex scenes don’t take up too much of the novel really, there’s still plenty of detective work which is, in my opinion, the more exciting parts! Although I found reading these parts a bit cringey, if you just want the thriller element then to be honest you could just skim over these scenes without missing really important plot information. To me it’s not a deal breaker, it’s just something I could have done without but if you enjoy a bit of theatrical romance then this will probably tick that box for you nicely.
I really enjoyed the way various seemingly unrelated narratives all linked together at the end- I always love it when novels do this. I felt satisfied at the end of this book that all the important elements were explained properly and the loose ends were all tied up.
I would definitely recommend this novel to others as I really enjoyed reading it, and will give any future books in the series a go as well.
(Many thanks to Headline for providing an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review)
Closer Than You Think is the first book in a brand new series by well-established crime/thriller writer Karen Rose.
I won't re-hash the synopsis here again! I have read a few Karen Rose novels before and always enjoyed them and the way she creates vivid, interesting characters. Faith and Special Agent Deacon Novak definitely hit it off together and you can tell from the point that they first meet that they are going to get together, despite her pretending to be annoyed with him. Novak is pretty likeable as a character, though I imagine his extreme protectiveness of Faith would really get on my nerves if I were her- but then, she does seem to have a crazed killer after her so I guess it’s justified!
I do feel like Faith is kind of put on a pedestal in this novel and made out to be the perfect, selfless woman who wants to help everyone and who Novak thinks is just amazing. Sometimes I wished she’d just say ‘you know what, I’m terrified and don’t really care about anyone else, just keep me safe!” because then she’d seem a bit more like a real person.
One thing to note for those that are easily confused in novels (which I admit can sometimes be me) is that there are a lot of supporting characters in this novel; I feel like some of them could easily have been cut out and the story would still have been as good, as sometimes I had to pause and work out who a particular character was and where they’d been mentioned before.
The storyline is nicely fast paced, gritty, gripping from the very first few pages when the danger is quickly introduced. Karen Rose doesn’t seem to hang about when she starts a novel, she gets straight into the story and I think with this type of story that’s just what you want! The narrative included plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing whilst still remaining within the realms of possibility. Things got crazy, but not so much that you didn’t believe it could ever happen! At 544 pages on Kindle (and over 700 in paperback apparently!) this is a long book, but it didn’t feel like I was getting bored or distracted as I read it; it kept me hooked throughout and I enjoyed reading almost every part of it...
Now, I’m no prude. Sex scenes in books don’t bother me at all; they’re usually a bit of fun and add to the story. They can be written well and in a way that doesn’t make me cringe or feel like I’ve accidentally picked up a badly written erotic novel. However, Deacon and Faith’s relationship is very romanticised and overemotional, in my opinion. This applies to their dialogue with each other and, well, just the way they are together considering the novel only spans 9 days and they don’t meet until a day into the story!
It gets pretty damn cheesy in the parts where they’re ‘flirting’ and especially during the sex scenes - they really made me cringe to be honest! I do understand that this novel also seems to be a romance but if the romance/ sex parts need to be included then I feel it could have been done in a better way with less dramatics. Here are a few examples:
• “He exploded into action, yanking her panties down her legs, pushing his boxers out of the way, rolling her to her back. He straddled her again, but this time the view was much better... “But not now,” he said gruffly. “I need to be inside you now.”
• “Because, although she hadn’t twitched her ass once, Deacon would have to be a dead man not to notice that it was round and... very nice.”
• “Rounded breasts swelling above black lace. Creamy white skin. Soft, he thought. Her skin would be so soft. And he needed to look away. Now.”
• “Emotion barrelled through him with the force of an avalanche”
And on and on! The sexual tension is present from the moment Faith and Deacon meet but the sex scenes don’t take up too much of the novel really, there’s still plenty of detective work which is, in my opinion, the more exciting parts! Although I found reading these parts a bit cringey, if you just want the thriller element then to be honest you could just skim over these scenes without missing really important plot information. To me it’s not a deal breaker, it’s just something I could have done without but if you enjoy a bit of theatrical romance then this will probably tick that box for you nicely.
I really enjoyed the way various seemingly unrelated narratives all linked together at the end- I always love it when novels do this. I felt satisfied at the end of this book that all the important elements were explained properly and the loose ends were all tied up.
I would definitely recommend this novel to others as I really enjoyed reading it, and will give any future books in the series a go as well.
(Many thanks to Headline for providing an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review)